After a long, snowy, gray winter (the gray part kills me more than the snowy part) the sun finally came out. And now I feel alive again!

It's funny how you don't even realize how cooped up and blue you feel until you get outside and see those gorgeous skies and feel that beautiful, glorious SUN.

To celebrate, I surprised my girls with a picnic at our very favorite place- the farm.

I even climbed up into the tree house, awkwardly squeezing into the tiny entrance so we could have a magical picnic inside. It ended up being more like a cramped, "don't let your food even get close to the ground or walls because they are super gross" kind of picnic, but that was ok too.

We finished our food, played "duck duck goose", and then emerged from the tree house covered in dirt and yogurt to find a friend playing below. A little embarrassed I laughed and told the mom "oh, the girls begged me to go up there with them" which was a total lie. Sometimes I just like to revert back to my childhood a little bit.

I'm not sure who had more fun. The girls making "collections" of rocks and sticks and getting lost in their imaginary world, or me quietly watching and taking pictures of them.

The trip wouldn't be complete without not one, or two, but three trips to the bathroom for this little newly potty trained girl. We probably spent half our time trekking to the bathroom and back. But hey, she didn't have an accident so I'm not complaining!

To make this picture I squatted the same position for 20 minutes while they chatted away, just waiting for them to look at each other at the same time. I was about to give up when BAM the moment happened.

I thought for a minute about how funny I must look, but I didn't even care. Photography is my play. It felt so GOOD to be out there soaking in the sun, getting lost in my own little world and making art just for the pleasure of doing it.

Because it's ridiculously hard to tell this story in just 5 images, you can check out the rest here. :)